She was very close to him.

Suddenly she flung her arms round his neck and kissed him vehemently.
"I can give you a kiss to-day," she said apologetically.

"You've looked so white, it's made my heart ache." Paul kissed her, and left her.

Her arms were so pitifully thin that his heart ached also.
That day he met Clara as he ran downstairs to wash his hands at dinner-time.
"You have stayed to dinner!" he exclaimed.

It was unusual for her.
"Yes; and I seem to have dined on old surgical-appliance stock.